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The best we never had

Bob Woolmer had few equals as a coach, but his native country were never to benefit

Bob Woolmer was the best coach England never had. He should probably have got the job back in 1994 when he joined South Africa following his record-breaking treble season at Warwickshire. Instead, England were in the last throws of amateurism with Ray Illingworth combining the roles of coach (or manager, as he preferred to call it) and chairman of selectors, and they had not the wherewithal to see the gift-horse, let alone the mouth.

Then, in 1999, he was ready to leave South Africa and in the frame to succeed David Lloyd, only to be pipped at the post by Duncan Fletcher.

Aged 58 when he died, he was probably too old to have taken over from Fletcher now - he had indicated that he was ready to return to Cape Town to run his own academy - but only last year he confided that he had been asked by the England